Paul Krugman is swiftboating Obama again. This time he has denounced the Illinois Senator for what he calls an “ugly mailer.” Here’s first page of Obama’s ”ugly” direct mail ad:
Having trouble figuring out what’s so “ugly” about this? Well, most normal people would have the same problem. Krugman, on the other hand, detects the sinister influence of the Harry and Louise ad:
[The Obama campaign] obviously deliberately copied it. Just to remind everyone, Harry and Louise were the center of the vile smear campaign the insurance lobby waged against health care reform in 1993.
And Krugman is not alone in seeing similarities to the infamous (to faux-progressives) HIAA ad. Ezra Klein also notes it. And, ever the deep thinker, Klein is very interested in the ad’s sartorial element:
The Obama campaign kept their hairstyles and barely even changed their clothing — which is really quite unfair to Harry and Louise, who probably let go of the plaid years back.
One thing is curiously absent from both critiques of the mailer: neither Krugman nor Klein disputes its accuracy. Why? Because Hillary does indeed want to “force everyone to buy insurance.”
Which is, of course, the real problem. Like the Harry and Louise ad, Obama’s mailer commits one unforgivable sin: it tells the truth. This, as Krugman and Klein know, is the one thing that can kill Hillarycare 2.0.
Ironically, denunciations by people like Krugman and Klein tend to weigh in Obama’s favor. I’m with Kevin when he says:
The more Ezra and Krugman gang up on Obama, the more appealing he is to me.
As I have said before, anyone these guys hate can’t be all bad.
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